


Painted Pinings

by AceLee



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Medieval, Damsel Rachel, Damsel!Rachel, F/F, Knight Reyna, Knight!Reyna, Pre-Relationship, Reychel - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-26
Updated: 2017-12-26
Packaged: 2019-02-21 22:45:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,387
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13153596
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AceLee/pseuds/AceLee
Summary: Rachel was just on a regular errands run for Chiron, but fate decided to let her catch a glimpse of a living goddess.





	Painted Pinings

**Author's Note:**

  * For [freyabookworm](https://archiveofourown.org/users/freyabookworm/gifts).



> Sorry about the lack of paragraph indentations! I didn't know how to get the formatting just right. Please tell me if you see any mistakes! Merry Chrysler! Happy Crimmus!

The late afternoon was bright and hot. Heat waves rose from the stone road and blurred the distant castle. Shaded merchant stalls lined the road selling exotic fruits from the east, herbs from the south, fabrics from the north, fish from the west and anything one could name under the sun. Merchants called into the crowded roads at passersby and argued over inflated prices. Carts rolled and bounced noisily over the cobblestone and the mules pulling them complained loudly. Women laughed at jokes as they carried baskets of laundry and ingredients for the night’s dinner. Children holding sticks for swords weaved carelessly between the crowd chasing one another, shrieking with delight.

Rachel Elizabeth Dare took refuge in the shadow of the cool stone arch. She leaned back against the dull metal engraving in the arch, proudly declaring itself the second gate of the city. Wiping her forehead with the back of her hand, she set down her basket of rolled parchments, barley, fruits, and flowers. Steward Chiron was expecting her with the supplies soon, but with the heat and the crowd, Rachel hoped that he wouldn’t mind if she stopped to catch her breath.

A woman on the other side of the arch shrilly scolded a young boy. His ears were red, but his face was defiant as he rubbed at his cheek where she had hit him. A chicken bobbed between legs and wheels, clueless to the danger that surrounded it. It squawked indignantly when a cart rushed directly in front as if in disbelief that something would dare cut off its path. Rachel chuckled softly to herself, rearranging the items in her basket. If only she had her canvases and dyes with her. What a scene she could have painted.

There was a sudden sound of shouting and thundering horse hooves somewhere down the cobblestone road. Merchants quieted down and heads turned in confusion. Rachel stretched her head up to see over the crowd which was slowly moving to the sides of the road to make way for whatever was coming down the road.

Rachel picked up her basket to make room for others and pressed herself against the cool stone walls of the archway. Whispers swept the crowd as men put small children on their shoulders and older children climbed the stone walls and merchant stalls to get a better view. Rachel peered over her basket which came up to her nose.

“Make way! Make way!” A brightly dressed squire on a brown horse cantered passed. People scattered quickly out of his way.

“Hmph,” The man next to Rachel grunted, “squires think they’re so important.”

“That’s because they are,” The young boy on top of his shoulders replied smartly, his little hands gripping the man’s dark hair.

Rachel hefted the slipping basket up a little higher. The whispers turned into excited chatter and then to cheers as the Royal Knights came into sight. They passed on horses, laughing, whooping, and hollering, tossing an apple between themselves, and calling out to people they knew in the crowd.

Someone threw a bundle of flowers. One of the knights caught it smoothly and sent a wink in the thrower’s general direction. Rachel rolled her eyes when she heard the shrieking and exaggerated fainting of other damsels.

Then something caught Rachel’s eyes. Leading the Knights was the famously stoic, General Reyna Ramirez Arellano. She sat regally atop a tall, tan thoroughbred slightly in front of the group and, though she did not participate in the group’s rambunctiousness, the corners of her mouth quirked slightly up in amusement at their antics.

Her dark, glossy hair was in a loose, balletic braid that cascaded over her purple general’s cape, nearly brushing the saddle. When she turned her head, it gracefully arced around like a ballerina’s ribbon.

Rachel’s breath caught in her throat when Reyna turned to look in her direction. A gold wreath encircled her head above fierce dark eyebrows and sharp, piercing eyes that were darker than the night and invited anyone to dare challenge her.

Rachel had seen Reyna several times before. Once, when she was passing by the archery field, she saw Reyna drawing back her bow, muscles taunts, and expression so fierce, it could have set her arrow on fire. She had looked like Artemis the Huntress. Never had Rachel seen a person so powerfully elegant and dangerously beautiful.

“Wow,” The blonde maiden next to Rachel sighed, “Aren’t they gorgeous.”

“Yeah,” Rachel agreed absently. She couldn’t seem to pull her eyes away from General Reyna.

“I heard that Sir Jason is quite the gentleman as well,” the maiden giggled, waving at the blonde knight conversing with a dark-haired knight, who was rumored to be his sister, though they looked nothing alike.

“Oh,” Rachel replied, as she watched General Reyna accept a flower from a child and weave it into the mane of her horse, “wasn’t talking about him.”

“So, you’re more of a Sir Percy type of girl?” The girl asked, referring to the dark-haired, green-eyed knight riding side by side with a serious blonde knight with long, curly hair. Little did the girl know that Sir Percy had been a childhood friend of Rachel’s and still was a close friend of hers.

“Oh no. Not for a long while.” Rachel laughed.

The maiden looked at her confused and seemed to be forming a reply when someone knocked into Rachel and the basket in her hands slipped and fell, causing apples to roll out onto the ground.

“Oh no,” Rachel got to her knees to get them back. Hopefully, they wouldn’t bruise much. Chiron, though he never said anything, very much disliked bruised apples and would be in a passive aggressive mood for the rest of the day if he received bruised apples. Rachel hated it when Chiron was passive aggressive.

The people in front of her turned to help her collect the escaping fruits. An apple rolled out onto the Knight’s path. Rachel winced as General Reyna slowed her horse to a stop in front of the apple and the Knights stopped behind her, quieting down.

“Timmy,” Reyna called, her voice was void of emotion.

A young squire pulled his Arabian horse up to hers, it looked very small in comparison. He swung off his horse and scurried to pick up the apple.

The crowd watched silently.

The squire, Timmy, rubbed the apple on his gold tunic and handed it to General Reyna. She moved her horse sideways toward Rachel, the crowd around Rachel shrunk back until she stood out like the first red tulip of spring.

“Thank you,” Rachel said sincerely, reaching forward to take the apple. Their fingers brushed briefly, a tingle erupted in Rachel’s fingertips. For what seemed like an eternity, neither moved. Both stood frozen in the eyes of the other, the apple acting as a bridge between the two.

Someone coughed.

Rachel quickly withdrew her hand and the apple and looked away. She could feel her face turning into a bright red tomato.

Reyna tilted her head forward, her face was unreadable, “It was my pleasure.”

A knight snickered, causing Reyna to level an icy glare into the group.

“Move out,” Reyna clicked her tongue, urging her horse forward without another glance at Rachel. If Rachel didn’t know any better, she might have thought she saw a sort of embarrassed or bashful expression on Reyna’s face, but that would be ridiculous because this was General Reyna Ramirez Arellano, decorated war hero and leader of the kingdom’s army. Why would she be embarrassed?  

The knights followed General Reyna, whispering childishly amongst each other. Sir Percy waggled his eyebrows at Rachel as he passed which prompted her to roll her eyes in response. She hefted her basket, so it sat higher on her hip and ignored the stares and gossiping. Let people think what they wanted to think. It didn’t bother her.

Rachel watched the last of the Knights disappear past the third gate, a soft smile grew slowly on her face when she saw General Reyna glance back at her and lifted a hand in farewell. The sun was radiant on her face and she stood out like a guiding angel in the darkest storm. If only Rachel had her canvas and dyes with her. What a scene she could’ve painted.

**Author's Note:**

> After re-reading it right before I posted, I realized there wasn't nearly enough romance in this. I'll probably add a second chapter to this or another work, but I've never written these two before and I'm pretty new at writing romances and writing in general so it might take a while.


End file.
